Saturday, October 25, 2014

Dear Enda.... about IRISH WATER

Yesterday on the Twitter machine, Dearbhail McDonald, Legal
Editor with the Irish Independent posed the following question. “If @irishwater were to somehow start all over
again, what advice would you give to the government?” 140 characters were not enough.

Dear Enda

There is little doubt that Irish Water a complete mess and a
PR disaster. This is the result of rushing
at it like a horny bull at a gate into a field of attractive cows, whose eyes
are only on the prize, in your Government’s case – the tax revenue. Remember what your mammy taught you – “fail
to prepare, then prepare to fail.”

But the Government has a bigger problem. The imposition of yet another tax on the beleaguered
people of this country has finally pushed us to boiling anger. And this anger is not just, as some
commentators would have us believe, because we live in a soggy country where it
rains all the time resulting in our having some kind of psychological
reluctance to pay for the very stuff that often makes us feel damp and
miserable.

We are angry because we have had enough. We are angry because this is a tax too
far. We are angry because we now know
that in two years time most of us; especially those of us who live in urban
centres are going to be fleeced with the unfair property tax that is calculated
on value of our homes as opposed to square footage.

We are angry because this is how we are repaid for our
compliance with all the austerity that has been forced upon us for debts that
we didn’t incur. It is the people who
have allowed your Government and the previous one, to enforce the cuts and
taxes that have given you great kudos abroad.
Ireland’s so called recovery is not your triumph – it belongs to the
people of this country.

But we are now saying enough is enough. We have no more to give.

But let’s park the anger for a moment. There is obviously a case to be made for the
payment of water and the treatment of waste.
In principle I would imagine most of us would accept this. So here is what I suggest you do. If, that is, you really are planning for an
infrastructure project that will serve this country and our people for the next
number of decades and not (as most of us suspect) you are just seeing Irish
Water as another way to raise more tax Euros in the short term.

Streamlined, small efficient
company

Irish Water should be in the first instance a small and very
efficient company. It should not be a
retirement home for workers who previously have been employed by the local councils.
There should be no talk of bonuses or whatever other terms have been used to
describe same. Ditto with car allowances
and other nonsense.

Fix the leaks

In the first instance Irish Water should be charged with fixing
the leaky system. And don’t give us the
line about how will they pay for it? If
Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council can spend €33 million on a monster
library, if the GAA can secure €30 million for the redevelopment of Pairc Ui
Chaoimh, money will be found. How much
have you spent on the other ill fated project currently on the table, the
Children’s Hospital? This year we will
pay in the region of €4 billion in that other awful austerity tax the Universal
Social Charge. As usual in politics – there
is always the money - it’s a question of priorities.

Grants for rainwater
harvesting and other water conservation measures

If water is as precious a resource as Irish Water have tried
to tell us it is and if we are serious about changing our attitudes to water
then it is vital that the Government introduce incentives to allow people to
invest a little now in measures that would conserve water in the future. To me this is a glaring omission to the
current plan for introducing water charges.
Bringing in such incentives would also have a positive PR bounce as it
would give the impression that instead of being ripped off we are all in this
together. See how we took to
recycling? We can easily do similar with
water conservation.

Install meters

Once the company is seen to be fit for purpose and the leaky
system has been brought into the 21st century, then Irish Water can
begin the process of fitting meters. But
could I suggest that most people would like a meter that they could read easily
– similar to the ESB or Gas Meter and not something that exists solely under
the ground at the end of the driveway.
We have never paid for water as a separate utility before and most of us have little or no
idea about how much we actually use. It
is vital to build trust so a meter that is visible to householders I think is
essential.

When all of the above
has been completed then it is appropriate to announce a date for billing to
start. I would suggest no earlier than
2020.

Finally – once we are
paying for water – there should be no talk of call out charges. If there is a gas leak – do we have to pay
the Gas Company to attend?

I know that as Taoiseach you are surrounded by advisors that
cost me and the rest of us plenty money.
You might like to review their input Enda. Because Irish Water is rapidly going to go
down in history as the biggest government mess ever – eclipsing the E Voting
machines and Children’s Hospital and Incinerator messes that have preceded it.

Once you start bullying your electorate Enda you lose
them. This project needs to be
completely reimagined. Irish Water needs
to be completely overhauled before you can do anything. Then slowly, bringing your people with you,
there might be some chance of success.
And your legacy may just survive... and I know that’s very
important. Not to us... but to you and
your fellow Ministers.

Sincerely

Barbara Scully

P.S oh and by the way Enda, tinkering about with allowances etc is not going to quell the anger... in fact it may do exactly the opposite. We know you are on the ropes on this one... it's time for time out and a total rethink and redesign.

3 comments:

Barbara, you never mentioned that the Irish tax payers are already paying for their water supply through the centralisation of tax funds paid directly to the dept of finance instead of to their local councils via the now defunct "rates" system, thanks to Fianna Fáil. If FG and Labour are for the people, should they not be asking where the billions collected for this purpose has gone? Maybe Brian Cowen (director on IW board) may have some insight to this as a former minster of finance, as would the incumbant TD Mr Noonan!